Surgical devices are used in various open, endoscopic, and laparoscopic surgeries to manipulate tissue, staple tissue, and/or transect tissue volumes and blood vessels. These devices can include jaws for grasping tissue therebetween and, in at least some devices, a cutting mechanism that can be advanced through the grasped tissue to transect the tissue. The cutting mechanism can be designed to travel within a track formed in one or both jaws. The devices can also be used to seal tissue volumes and blood vessels being transected, for instance by applying electrical energy to the grasped tissue to seal it before tissue transection is completed. For example, various mono-polar and bi-polar radio frequency (RF) surgical instruments and surgical techniques have been developed for sealing tissue volumes and blood vessels. Electrodes can be disposed on a face of one or both of the jaws and can, for example, apply energy to the grasped tissue.
For surgical devices that include an electrode on at least one jaw, the electrode can be caused to increase in temperature to allow the electrode to treat tissue, such as seal the tissue. After treatment, a user of the surgical device may need to wait for the electrode to cool before moving the electrode or subsequently using the jaws. Such waiting for the electrode to cool can prolong a surgical procedure and increase risk of unintended damage to tissue. Furthermore, some surgical devices that include an electrode on at least one jaw can deliver energy, such as RF, to tissue adjacent the electrode for heating the tissue. However, delivering the energy to tissue for heating can result in non-localized heating of the tissue, which can cause unintended heating of some tissue and possible unwanted damage to such tissue.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved electrosurgical tools having electrodes.